Short Stories of Random and Unknown

The One that Lurks

Callie sat thinking in class on a dreary afternoon, her friends were talking about going somewhere abandoned. She didn't like the thought of that. Abandoned things gave her a sense of unease and dread. She got a shiver down her spine before her best friend, Lily pulled her back into reality. "Callie! Earth to Callie!!" she called, waving her hand in front of her face. "Yeah? What do you need?" Callie asked, sounding a bit out of it. "Well me and the others found a place we wanna go and we want to know if you're coming with us?" She asks with a hopeful smile on her face. "Where are you guys planning to go exactly?" Callie asks, skeptical about what little strange expedition her friend wants to drag her along to this time. "Well we heard that recently there was an old mental facility that was discovered the other day by some researchers." Lily explained before another friend, Tatiana chimed in, "This place is also said to have held some extremely deadly people when it was open, so we wanna check it out."  Callie raised an eyebrow at the explanation, a bit unnerved by why her friends, who couldn't even sit through a horror movie without getting absolutely terrified, wanted to go to an asylum that held mentally unwell people and criminals. She scratched the back of her neck, "You sure that you guys wanna go to a place like that?" She muttered, still feeling uneasy just from the suggestion of going to such a place. "Yeah! It'll be fine, we are only gonna be there for a little while then we're heading to Tatiana's house to stay the night. So are you in or out Callie?" Lily says, a mischievous smile playing on her lips as she gazes at her, waiting for her answer. Callie looked away in thought before giving Lily a stare that said 'you better be glad your my friend.' then sighing, "I guess I'll go, but if the police come and catch us it's your fault. Got it?" to which Lily nodded and squealed excitedly. Callie just rolled her eyes and smiled, sure her friend had lost her mind completely.  The bell finally rang, signalling the end of the school day. Lily got up excitedly, giddy for the twisted adventure she was making her friends go on.

{That Night}

Callie walked up to the woods, looking up at the dusty, rotted pine trees with unease. She had a bad feeling and she hadn't even stepped foot into the eerie forest. She texted the group chat letting her friends know she had arrived at the address Lily had sent her. After sitting there for a few minutes she heard Lily laughing as she and Tatiana walked up with each of them carrying a backpack on their backs. Callie looked at them in curiosity. "Hey Callie!! Glad you could make it." Lily said as she waved to Callie and got a flashlight out of her backpack. "So where is this mental facility you were talking so much about, huh Lily?" Callie retorts jokingly as she puts a hand on her hip. Lily scoffs and gestures to the dead looking forest, "It's in there of course." She says as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Callie shook her head and looked into the forest "You sure you want us to go in there? You don't know what lurks in that place." Callie muttered as she looked to the side of her, at Lily, who looked way too excited to be going into a dark mile-long forest. Callie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in mild annoyance but let it go before nodding, "Well then let's go in Ms. Fearless." she teases as she starts walking into the forest and looking around the dim wooded area. The two girls looked at each other and shrugged before walking into the woods. Callie immediately felt nauseated as she entered the forest, she gazed at all the decaying and twisted trees surrounding the girls like predators ready to attack at any moment. She kept on despite her gut telling her not to keep going forward. Lily was practically throwing up glitter from how excited she was, while Tatiana was kind of scared. As the trio neared the building they could see the brush and vines covering the ginormous structure. The outside was a dirty white building with two stories, eroded concrete walls with graffiti littered all over the building with unknown and even unsettling images. The windows were boarded up but the most strange thing they saw was the doors. It looked like the double doors were ripped completely off their hinges, and by the looks of the mangled hinges somehow miraculously still attached to the door frame, they used to be reinforced metal doors. Claw marks deeply etched into the concrete caught Callie's attention as they made their way to the front steps of the rickety old building. Callie had this increasing feeling of unease as she approached the doorway, peering into the facility. She immediately had to cover her nose from the horrid odor resonating throughout the rooms. She could not place the smell but it definitely was not normal at all. Tatiana got full body chills as she entered the building and felt scared "Guys I'm starting to think this was a bad idea.." She mutters, looking around like something would jump out at her. Lily laughs "You scaredy cat! It's just some really old building, it's not like there are monsters or anything, they aren't real!" she teases as she nudges Tatiana's shoulder playfully. Tatiana lets out a nervous chuckle and nods as she gets her flashlight out. Lily takes a look around then speaks up with a large grin, "I say we split up! It'll make exploration much more creepy and awesome!" Tatiana's eyes got as big as saucers and she shook her head frantically "Lily that's a bad idea! It's scary in here already..!" Lily looks at her and scoffs, "Don't be a baby Tati, it'll only be a little bit. We'll regroup in an hour." Tatiana looked defeated and sighed softly, "Alright.." she mumbles through quivering lips. Lily smiled and said to both girls, "I'll take the basement, Tati you have the upstairs, and Callie you have the ground floor and the back garden, okay?" To which both girls nodded reluctantly, both feeling a sense of dread and unease as they went to their area's to explore and investigate.